6 July seems to be the right date. According to WSX's blogpost of 10 July, she learnt of the bad news "a few days" beforehand. http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6f0b58c3010162nl.html
That's what I suspected too according to her blogpost. Now we know on hindsight. Those stuff you provided are very interesting and helpful. Thanks and keep it up.
If an athlete gains a new or second nationality, they do not have to wait any designated amount of time before participating for the new or second nation. The IOC is only concerned with issues of citizenship and nationality after individual nations have granted citizenship to athletes. So if you gain nationality you can represent that country... But that had to happen before the cut-off date which happened to be the 3rd May... But Olympics isnt the only competition, there are certain countries where deserving players are still treated as pawns and the politicians or the policy makers decide their fate often biased or doing favouritism... In such countries the only options left to players are either lie down or migrate....
Eligibility of a player to represent a new country http://www.bwfbadminton.org/file_download.aspx?id=364318&tid=1
OT : this activity seems all too familiar thus recalled another thread which mentioned a similar activity which the CHN team did a few yrs back (I think there's another thread which has more photos but don't recall)...Also not sure if the recent hike was at the same location or not.. http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php/23264-endurance-training-the-Chinese-way...?
Whn people say WX and LXR would be used to shield WYH, I kind of find it difficult to second this thought, okay I may not have watched most of the matches of WYH but whatever I have seen of her matches against tough opponents it either goes to rubber sets, though at the end she somehow manages to pull it back (miraculously I would say, just because of the number of times it has happened) or if they are Chinese its termed as fixed (since for the last year CHN wanted 4 top players in the world so LXR who was lacking points before won everything which came in between to somehow manage a sneak in just before the cut-off date). With WYH the number of matches which goes to the rubber set makes me believe she doesnt has edge technically, yeah on one hand she comes out mentally strong but at the same time the pressure of Olympics could get on and hit the mental strength hard. LXR seems to be a better player technically... WX is out of this coz she seems moody and many players know how to beat her... So if LXR and WYH hapens to be facing each other at the semi-final it would be interesting, to see how they approach more so since CHN tradditionally wouldnt want to risk letting them play all out and almost certainly would chose one over the other... Wld love to see wht LYB would say then... about his selection criteria then whether to let WYH a go or LXR lolz
This is why I don't like LXR to meet WYH in the semifinal. I am sure WYH will be chosen to go to the final because of her experience and mental strength. On the othe hand if LXR meet WX, it is possible LXR will be chosen unless Tine Baun beat WYH in the semifinal.
3 CHN in the SF is too much to ask for there would certainly be an upset... Atleast one from the top 15 should be able to turn the tide on the day, say QF... Wouldnt be surprised if WYH loses to SJ, WX can lose to almost anybody and LXR can lose to a placement player... With recent form it has become exciting.The draw holds the key now, bring it on...........
I did a bit more research and found, out of the 4 CHN gals, the one which has the worst record vs. Saina Nehwal is WSX (Saina is 3-1 vs. WSX)....my gut feeling says LYB considers Saina as the biggest challenger (besides the other non-CHN players) to his WS players, hence the clear cut selection ..
Or it could be the fact that LXR has shown awe-inspiring form recently ... Looking at recent performances, without going any further provides a clear-cut choice too.
The only player LXR has beaten amongst the Wangs is Yihan rest she has a nil ever in her column in the head to heads. Her record: LXR vs Wang Xin: 0-5 LXR vs Wang Shixian: 0-2 LXR vs Wang Yihan: 3-4(before 2012 it was 0-4 come the qualification period and she had a 3 straight wins against the worlds Top most player) Dont you believe her awesome form was rigged, manipulated for her to move over Saina in the rankings so that she could allow CHN options? Nothing fishy really?
Wang xin as the only left handed top4 has to be included to make their opponent spend some time playing against leftiesss
No; it's not like she only needs to beat chinese players to win a tournament. You need to look at her performance against everybody; if her non-chinese record remains the same, then you can say it has been 'rigged'. If there's a difference, then she's obviously improved, irrespective of anything lyb or other chinese players do.
LXR has clearly figured WYH out. From what I have seen, LXR has the poise and temperament to win the gold. If they did meet, WYH might need a bit of "help" (which probably has already been predetermined) to secure victory. LXR will need to wait till 2016 when she is the top dog and will have earned her privileges through seniority.
We know WYH is going walk past LXR without playing seriously. If I were LYB, why should I risk putting inexperienced LXR in the gold medal match.
Doesn't it depend on whether the gold will be contested? If gold and silver are already won, wouldn't bronze become the most important medal?
Whoa, pardon me for saying this, you seem to credit LYB with special,even superhuman ability or maybe he has a crystal ball to facilitate him to engineer,orchestrate and stage-manage LXR's rise by knocking out all the non-CHN players one-by-one? How did he know that LXR would after winning the German Open'12 beating Juliane Schenk, then advanced to the All England Final to face WYH,followed by sailing to the ABC final after demolishing Chen SC in the QF,and finally went on to win the India SS again beating an in-form Juliane Schenk? My point is if LXR hasn't got what it takes,nobody can do anything for her, not even once,let alone 3 times in a row, esp when things can go wrong along the way, and there was only a few months away from OG qualification. I think your belief or theory is too far-fetched or you over-rated LYB's ability. Anyway,granted you could be right,then LXR is just a paper tiger,so no non-CHN player should worry about her. Btw,LXR's last encounter vs Wang Xin was a close 3-game Final match, I remember, proving she was on the rise at that time - which up-and-coming player doesn't have a negative H2H against the top guns? Her 0-2 record against WSX was quite far back as otherwise how come WSX was struggling against the very same non-CHN players that LXR got the best of? As for WYH, even if she "helped" LXR once or twice (debatable if you've watched how the matches were played out),surely the the 3rd time in a row was too much and unnecessary in the INA Open'12 SF seeing as she was already ranked 4th and in the running for OG spot. Not only that, LXR's sudden rise has posed LYB knotty problem such that should his final choice turn out wrong,he would certainly be severely blamed for it, as opposed to simply having only the original three Wangs qualified without him having to lose sleep over who to select as there would be no 4th option to mull over, a luxurious headache not without risk - don't forget LXR is the youngest of the four and lacking in experience on big match occasions.
